On January 1st every year, midnight strikes and it kicks off a glorious momentum of positive thinking and goal setting. Then February hits… What happened?

Why is it so easy to start a resolution?

During the holidays, people are usually operating outside of a routine. There’s time off from work, you see friends and family, there are parties, travel, and vacations. Anything is possible. Everybody’s eating delicious food, further reinforcing a need to go on a diet. Friends and family are enlightening you to new ways of thinking (whether you want to hear it or not). There’s a whole new world out there, and you’re ready for it.

Even if you work through the holidays, stay home, and don’t indulge in celebratory feasts, you can’t escape the constant chatter of new year’s resolutions on tv, news articles, blogs, tweets, texts, billboards, anywhere and everywhere. The day after Christmas until the first week of January is one big goal-setting conversation, and it’s contagious.

So, why is it so easy to forgetabout your resolution?

Negative thinking.

In the process of building wealth, your state of mind is a key factor. If you were to win the lottery tomorrow, you’d be rich for a while, but negative thinking, even on the smallest level, would put you right back to square one. In the same way that if you were to begin acting on a new year’s resolution tomorrow, negative thinking would undo it.

Instead of getting down on yourself about not following through, start from the beginning again and start small. Begin within.

Resolve now to become an observer. Observe how you react to little setbacks. Empower yourself with the ability to change your thought habits, to exist on a higher level than what happens to you.

Stop the Snowball

Every little “negative” thing that occurs throughout the day can easily be snowballed into becoming a “terrible day” or worse, turn into “my life is awful.” You ran out of gas, you were late for work, that due date got pushed up, someone canceled on you. All of these little negative events are non-problems in the grand scheme of things. But even still, those events turn into: “I’m always running out of gas, nothing ever works out in my favor. I never catch a break. I can’t do anything right.” Using words with such finality makes these statements apart of you. You don’t want to be someone who never gets it right. Catch yourself in these moments of universal negativity. Once you’re aware of it, you can stop it before it starts.

And remember this, any negative setback is temporary, and it’s only negative if you perceive it that way. You deserve everything you set your mind to. So, all of those resolutions you thought up in January with such motivation and ease? Nothing has changed. Only your thoughts.